Editor’s Note

Firstly, thank you for reading. It has taken me a while to start something like this, partly because I wasn’t sure about what I had to say and partly out of fear that something like this wasn’t worth my time. But recently, time opened up for me, and I took a look at my life with a wide-lens camera and asked myself what I really love, and what I really want to do. The result was this newsletter.

It feels too informal and personal to go into any sort of personal biography or history, and that’s far from the point of this newsletter, so instead I wanted to write a few words of introduction outlining my intentions. They aren’t grand intentions, or a manifesto, but simply what I hope to achieve.

Yoonseul is targeted towards Western readers with an interest in translated literature, particularly Korean literature. I use the wider term ‘translated literature’ with the idea of keeping my lens broader, but the newsletter takes a Korean word as its name after all, and it’s Korean literature and literary culture that inspires and propels the work. I would hope, too, that Korean readers may find Yoonseul at least of some interest, and primarily position the newsletter ‘towards Western readers’ as this is my own position, and as I, unfortunately, can only write and read fluently in English.

Yoonseul is not intended to be a book reviewing or opinion-based website. I don’t want to rate books as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ but instead write about what I learned from them, what I found interesting or challenging, and what I have questions about. As a Western reader absorbing translated literature, these questions naturally gravitate towards culture, society, history, language. I want to embrace the not-knowing and the curiosity. I think this is one of the most profound gifts of reading literature in translation.

Yoonseul is also about my ongoing discovery and exploration of the contemporary Korean literary scene. There are many writers without works translated into English who have a strong social media presence and reputation that has led me down new paths of interest, and new paths of frustration at myself for laziness with Korean language study. So, I’d like to position myself also as a Korean language learner with the goal of, eventually, reading contemporary Korean literature in the original Korean. There seems to be a rich and vibrant literature scene that I find inspiring and interesting and that motivates my learning.

Finally, I’d love to be corrected and challenged. If any readers find something I write in these newsletters that doesn’t sit right with them, please get in contact and let me know. I don’t want Yoonseul to be the opinions of one person, and eventually I hope to take contributors. To assist in keeping the newsletter alive, relevant, aware and open, I need collaboration. So please, if anything interests you, angers you, delights you or otherwise moves you, please do get in contact.

Thank you again for reading Yoonseul. I’ll sign off with the promise that future introductions will never be as long as this one.